مصيبة بئر معونة

The Bi'r Ma'una massacre in Safar 4 AH was the single largest loss of life the Muslim community sustained outside of a formal battle. Abu Bara' Amir ibn Malik, a prominent chief of the Banu Amir, visited Medina and asked the Prophet ﷺ to send teachers to the Najd, pledging his personal protection. The Prophet ﷺ sent seventy companions — among the most accomplished in Quran, hadith, and Islamic teaching. At the well of Bi'r Ma'una, a companion was sent with the Prophet's ﷺ letter to Amir ibn al-Tufayl, Abu Bara's nephew. Amir killed the messenger without reading the letter. The Banu Amir honored Abu Bara's protection and refused to attack; Amir raised the surrounding tribes — Usayya, Ri'l, and Dhakwan — who attacked from all sides. The seventy companions fought and were killed almost entirely. Among the most cited details: Haram ibn Milhan, struck by a spear from behind, placed his hands in his own blood and rubbed it over his face, saying: 'By the Lord of the Kaaba, I have succeeded' — the declaration of joy and success at the moment of martyrdom. The Quran is reported to have revealed a verse about the Bi'r Ma'una martyrs — 'Convey to our people: we have met our Lord; He was pleased with us and we are pleased with Him' — that was recited for a period and then its recitation abrogated, though preserved in hadith. The Prophet ﷺ made the qunut al-nazila (supplication during calamity) at the Fajr prayer for a month against Ri'l, Dhakwan, and Usayya by name. Anas ibn Malik said: 'I never saw the Prophet ﷺ grieve more for anyone than he grieved for the companions of Bi'r Ma'una.' The seventy teachers killed at the well are among the most mourned figures in the seerah — their deaths representing the greatest single blow to the Muslim community's scholarly transmission in the early Medinan period. The two disasters of Safar 4 AH established that the most vulnerable resource of the Muslim community — its teachers and scholars — could be targeted through deception, and that the prophetic response to such losses was sustained prayer, public grief, and the continuation of the mission without compromise.